Some states have instituted a deposit beverage container program, wherein the price of beverages sold in retail outlets includes a deposit fee for the container. This deposit fee may be 5 cents to 10 cents per container in most states that have such a program in operation. Empty deposit beverage containers, which can be of aluminum, steel, plastic or glass material, can be redeemed at redemption centers, where the containers are bought back for the deposit fee. These programs are established in the interest of increasing public participation in recycling and reducing the amount of recyclables in the waste stream, thereby reducing the amount of waste entering landfills.
Some states allow redemption of containers by weight. Where redemption value is determined by weight, consumers redeeming light plastic containers usually do not receive full refund value. Ideally, the only way to ensure that consumers can receive full refund value for their light plastic containers is to determine refund value by count. At the present time, counting of containers at redemption centers is done predominately by hand. This is a slow and laborious process that is prone to errors, especially with higher quantities.
Currently available devices and known prior patents relating to such counting devices are not amenable to the needs of a redemption center because they either involve complex machinery that would be too expensive for the typical redemption center to afford, and costly to maintain, or are designed for use by the consumer wherein containers are deposited one by one.
Advances in technology have produced photoelectric sensors that can accurately detect passing containers, but to the best of our knowledge, there is as yet no device that will meet the needs of redemption centers for simple, fast and reliable counting of containers, and that supports compliance with redemption procedures which normally require visual inspection of the containers before they are accepted and counted. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,091,725 and 4,141,493 to Arp and U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,334 to Hanley are examples of patents that incorporate the use of electronic counting, however these devices are generally part of more complex machines, thus being inappropriate and too costly to be used in a redemption center operation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,062 to Pray incorporates photoelectric sensors to count containers, but this device is designed for use by consumers to deposit containers one by one. It also is not appropriate for use in redemption centers because it is designed to receive cans only, and uses the counter to provide a signal when the collecting bin is full. The present invention is designed to count beverage containers of all material types; i.e., aluminum and steel cans and plastic and glass bottles. The use of a loading mechanism that feeds containers onto a feed chute in a controlled manner allows the operator to guide the moving containers into the sensor feed channel and to inspect the containers before the containers are counted.
One of the primary causes of inaccurate counting by devices using photoelectric sensors is the lack of separation between containers as they pass through the sensor beam. This lack of separation can result in the sensors sensing contacting or nearly contacting containers as one container.